Political Solidarity Economy

By Jorge Santiago Santiago

This book seeks to generate debate and deepen our reflections about collectivity and understanding about political solidarity economy. Political Solidarity Economy is an alternative economy that enables a production process which transforms unfair relationships and defends territories from the interests of transnational corporations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Nov 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662918056

Book preview

This book is the translated, modified English version of the book Economia Politica Solidaria: Construyendo Alternativas published in Mexico, in 2019. This book was published with the support of Social Economic Development of Indigenous Mexicans (DESMI) and sponsored by Thousand Currents (Miles de Afluentes). The views and opinions expressed in this book are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Thousand Currents.

Political Solidarity Economy

Published by Gatekeeper Press

2167 Stringtown Rd, Suite 109

Columbus, OH 43123-2989

www.GatekeeperPress.com

Copyright © 2021 by Jorge Santiago Santiago

All rights reserved. Neither this book, nor any parts within it may be sold or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

Publication Coordination: Mónica Carrillo Zegarra

Translation: Sayra Pinto, Ximena Izquierdo Ugaz, Jamie San Andrés

Copy editors: Jamie San Andrés, David Pastor

Exterior and Interior Design: Camila Bustamante

The cover design, interior formatting, typesetting, and editorial work for this book are entirely the product of the author. Gatekeeper Press did not participate in and is not responsible for any aspect of these elements.

The views and opinions expressed in this book are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views or opinions of Gatekeeper Press. Gatekeeper Press is not to be held responsible for and expressly disclaims responsibility of the content herein.

Library of Congress Control Number: TBD

ISBN (paperback): 9781662918049

eISBN: 9781662918056

Contents

Prologue

Foreword

Introduction, Objectives, and Approach

Language and Expression

Closing Reflections

Selected Chronology

References

Bibliography

Prologue

ASSEMBLING MANY YEARS OF JORGE SANTIAGO SANTIAGO’S WORK, REFLECTIONS, AND DIALOGUES, we bring you this book titled Political Solidarity Economy, as a preamble to Social Economic Development of Indigenous Mexicans’ (DESMI’s) 50th anniversary celebration, commemorating our path and our work.

Political Solidarity Economy seeks to generate debate, reflection, and act as a resource for all of us individuals, communities, and organizations who work, care for, and construct alternatives of living alongside our people in hope of forging another economy.

Political Solidarity Economy is grounded in collective work, as well as care and respect towards Mother Earth. This collective work is strengthened through agroecological work, women’s participation, and the practice of mutual dialogue. Solidarity political economy also means creating collectives that are spaces for sharing knowledge and recovering customs dating back thousands of years; generating autonomous communal structures; and helping us to raise consciousness in the face of dispossession that threatens our territories now more than ever.

Whether we call it social economy or social and solidarity economy, in Political Solidarity Economy, Jorge provides us with the elements needed for a global vision of reality, as a call to understand and discover the relationships of production in an economic system that is based on dispossession and exploitation. Therefore, understanding the means of production and the distribution of goods is a political act in the sense that we want to be collective subjects for change.

Concepts, strategies and practices must go hand in hand. Agroecology is not possible without a political solidarity economy. There cannot be agroecology without political solidarity economy, and none of this can exist if we do not defend our land and territory. There must be self-determination and a struggle for these things—that is why we see the need for the system’s radical transformation.

This book is an invitation to deepen our reflections about collectivity. The intention of our end goal is not market solidarity, the promotion of exchanges, or the formation of cooperatives or collectives for production, but rather that these alternatives seek to conserve the lives of Mother Earth’s people, and become the engine for transformation that brings us into the work and struggle for our peoples’ autonomy.

María Estela Barco Huerta

DESMI, A.C. Coordinator

Foreword

THIS BOOK IS A HARMONIOUS AND LOGICAL CONSTRUCTION THAT TAKES INTO ACCOUNT FORWARD THINKING DESIRES, INTUITIONS, AND PERSPECTIVES.

It seeks to achieve a globally structured perspective that privileges historical processes and the historical construction of social subjects searching for change and for a new social model that emerges from balancing humanity and nature, while highlighting the elements that act as seeds of this new reality and paradigm.

Solidarity economy is seen as the global construction of new relationships that make possible coexistence, creativity, and the equitable distribution of goods, so that we may enjoy time and space to be free, and build a house where all are welcome. This line of thought aligns with the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN)’s proposal for autonomy and peoples’ rights—not as charity but as a self-determined construction.

Solidarity economy must be understood from a global vision of mutual support, land, knowledge, and an understanding of the power of orality. This, in turn, generates autonomous practices, or if you will, alternative practices that transform realities in a meaningful way. The principle of solidarity economy can be built by individuals and assumes responsibility for the situation at hand, which is characterized by extreme poverty and marginalization.

Throughout many years these problems have been allowed to worsen and now seem impossible to resolve. For example, with respect to agricultural work, it is not possible to immediately abandon the use of agro-chemicals since widespread use of them has been encouraged over a 40-year span. The same can be said about genetically modified seeds and the system of agricultural production in general, which depletes resources and foments the complete destruction of the land, both literally and in a holistic sense.

To recover the land holistically, an alternative, more sustainable agriculture is needed, i.e. agroecology. This implies recovering soil and implementing new systems for seed production and organic fertilizer that allow for the defense of territory and yield an adequate production of diverse foods that guarantee food security and the possibility of bartering products. The overall goal is to respect nature and rediscover the land’s potential. Therefore, the relationship between the land and self and one’s self with the land is very important. From there, the symbolic element of the universe emerges. The universe is found in culture, history, and the traditions of Indigenous communities. It is a force that determines all of existence.

Solidarity economy is a practice of collective production, exchange, relationships, construction, and work. Organized communities are mindful of new generations, so this economy assumes the participation of children, adults, elders through storytelling, organizing capacity, and their collective vision for the future. From there arises the need to renew forests, conserve water, find solutions to waste, and be vigilant toward industrial chemical contamination.

This vision demands making decisions such as opposing pesticides, genetically modified seeds, agricultural practices that devastate natural resources, and state-sponsored programs that deliver agrochemicals to farmers and target production for international markets. This transformative concept comes from modest practices; it emerged from our strength simultaneously as we became aware that it is possible to generate new alternatives. This didn’t just happen in one place, but rather all over the world; this practice of recovery is not constructed only by trying to get out of poverty and marginalization, but also with alternatives to the neoliberal model.

An alternative economy, in a way, reflects the society we want in the future. Given how the neoliberal economy has taken us to war, destruction, competition, and individualism; solidarity economy is an instrument for the construction of new worlds. This economy represents the defense of territory and the search for change to the social relations of production, which are based in the logic of subjugation, racism, and relationships of inequity and abuse.

Solidarity economy is anchored to autonomy, freedom, and all emancipatory processes; it is the construction of resiliance as a strategy of resistance, finding the rhythm of the universe in order to work within the dynamic of totality and not accumulation, dispossession, and destruction. That is, it is about allocating resources in a way that coincides with life, abundance, solidarity, and creating new energies. This is why it does not represent the depletion of resources but rather the permanent renovation of each being, unit, and molecule. Therefore, it is a labor of discovery, understanding, and comprehension, whose objective is to reach a synthesis between every action we take today and our deepest utopias.

Now, to whom is this book directed? To everyone constructing alternatives to capitalism; to fortify the path for those who can see the reality and the potential of what may come to the youth; to new generations; to the rebels, who are willing to transform the relationships of domination and deceit; and to everyone who will have to rebuild and uplift hope after the catastrophe and chaos of the final struggle.

Introduction, Objectives, and Approach

MY INTENTION WAS TO WRITE A MANUSCRIPT THAT WOULD SERVE THE MASSES, which meant it was important to write the book thinking about what the reader would need to construct alternatives and believe in their ability to confront any obstacle with creativity and personal resolve.

I want this to be an invitation to imagine worlds; to face our current situation; to encourage you to take action in a context that seeks to determine and define our actions; to incite you to construct yourselves as transformative subjects of our current reality with an eye towards the future, understanding the seriousness and the strength of actions, as well as the determination behind what is decided and done towards the end of achieving freedom, justice, and the realization of people. In other words, to understand the commitment and energy of others, and that which takes place inside of us, so that we can live fully.

On this journey, we will encounter transformative and powerful energy, light, inspiration and the desire to live. We will strengthen our bodies, open our minds and hearts, our cells will be revitalized, we will open our eyes. We will be creative. We will take ownership over our lives and reality. We will understand other families’ histories and other peoples. We will share dreams, learn new things, discover the ability to love, surrender, tenderness, and above all else, we will release our fear to cultivate that which life itself gives in abundance.

The intention is to dislodge lethargy, transform relationships, and to believe again in the creative force within us, revive the experience of transformation to propel processes for social change, new ways of being, thinking, and relating without deceit, submission, or anguish but rather with trust, truth, exchange, respect, and a sense of freedom to live in plentitude. But how do we build a house for all? How do we live in plenitude and how do we ensure the value of enlightenment?

In this way, the purpose of this book coincides with the practice of transforming reality so we can be free in every sense and as part of a society with a global vision. As such, this document is the synthesis of a reflection that emerges from participating in various social, political, economic, cultural, and organizational processes, and can be read in two respects. On the one hand, there is the effort to comprehend the complexity of relationships involving humiliation, discrimination, exploitation and dispossession; and on the other, the construction of alternatives to the neoliberal system that generates deterioration and war.

Likewise, due to the reality in which we live and feel, our work seeks to establish a new order, the construction of a future where the conditions for life, dignity, justice, freedom, and our shared home may be possible. For that to happen, we need to understand our historic responsibility and take on the necessary tasks so that we may transform ourselves while resisting and renouncing the relationships and mechanisms of subjugation. We need to enter alternative dimensions of existence; offer mutual support; walk firmly the path of autonomy, solidarity, social economy, and that which gets us close to profound change—hope. We need to learn to walk the path in obscurity and not falter, listening to the testimonies of those whose work speaks for itself, those who stand firm in their decisions, those who have not abandoned the plow and advance with an eye toward the horizon.

Language and Expression

I HAVE TRIED TO WRITE IN A WAY THAT RESONATES ON A PERSONAL LEVEL SO READERS CAN ENGAGE WITH THIS TEXT IN A CREATIVE AND INSPIRATIONAL WAY, and so they can build their own visions—the kinds of expressions that come from deep down and, at the same time, refer back to the process of theoretical reflection. In this way, it is an ongoing attempt for words, phrases or ways of thinking to be based in reality, social movements, and that which is concrete. My intention is for each chapter to have its own essence and be able to stand on its own; in any case, I have meant for this to be a harmonious body of work, one that could become a tool for understanding political solidarity economy.

Similarly, it tries to shed light on the peasant and Indigenous peoples’ historical resistance and the reality of existing alternatives to the global neoliberal model. This is why the invitation to experience this book is itself a tool to discover the potential of this historical moment and transform relationships of exploitation.

This way of being that emerges from collective work; in solidarity with communities and peoples of distinct religions, political parties, and languages; starting with the land and light of each day—that is the future, and it is in the hands of those who want to get involved. It is the power of continuing on this path of ongoing transformation.

In Chiapas, you can see the will of the people surging in outright rebellion. They rebel against the past, in memory of the past, and in memory of utopia and alternative social models. All of this happens in the heart of communities, so close to the past and the future, each being integral to the other.

It is that same land that transforms, takes on a different hue, and accumulates new vitality in order to bear new fruit. It is the greenery and the rain that flourishes on a sunny day in winter, spring, fall, or summer.

They are planting the fields, seeds are sprouting, and from the daily toil—with broad,